


forever and ever

by ourdarkspirits



Series: We're lovers (and that is a fact) [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-25
Updated: 2015-10-02
Packaged: 2018-04-19 01:19:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4727381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourdarkspirits/pseuds/ourdarkspirits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie Potter learns Remus's secret and Remus learns that his friends are far more concerned about him than he could ever have anticipated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Remus's aunt was sick.  Again.  It seemed like she was sick all the time. Jamie had thought it would get better during second year.  After all, how long can a person be sick.  It was inconvenient when she had plans that included all of her friends and one of them was gone.

Now that Jamie thought about it, she thought Remus went to visit his aunt with a suspicious regularity.  Not only were his visits suspiciously regular but Remus always appeared ill when he left.  

As she thought about it more, Jamie became more convinced that Remus wasn't visiting his aunt.  Finally she leapt off her bed.  She needed to talk to Sirius.

It was a Saturday morning and Sirius wasn't in the common room when Jamie left her dorm and knowing Sirius she guessed he'd still be up in his dorm.  Ignoring the other Gryffindors she ran up the stairs and into the second year boys' dorm.  A quick glance around told her Sirius was the only one in the room.

"Oi!  Sirius, get up!" Jamie said as she bounced into his bed.

Sirius sat up, grumbling.  "What could possibly be important enough for me to get up so early?"

"Remus," Jamie replied.

Sirius snorted.  "That clears up everything."

"I'm not done you prat." Jamie replied.

"Ok. So what about Remus?" Sirius asked.  He couldn't wait to get to the point and back to sleep.  

"Where's Pete?" Jamie asks, not answering the question.

"What does Pete have to do with Remus?" Sirius asked. He'd just woken up. He could be forgiven if his brain was still little fuzzy.

"Pete is Remus's friend too," Jamie answered easily. "He should know what's going on, too."

The look Jamie gave Sirius told him she thinks he should have realized this on his own. He thought Jamie was probably right but in his defense he'd only just woken up.

"He's probably already at breakfast. We can fill him in later. What about Remus?"

"I'm pretty sure he's a werewolf," Jamie explained.

Sirius's eyes widened.  Alright so maybe he wasn't going back to sleep.  One's best friend being a werewolf was big news.  News that required proper deliberating.

"Why do you think Remus is a werewolf?" Sirius asked genuinely curious although he tried to mask it with his typical air of boredom.

Jamie didn't buy it. "He's gone once a month."

"His aunt's sick," Sirius answered casually.

"For more than a year?" Jamie returned easily. "And no one visits their sick aunt that regularly.  Especially when they're at boarding school."

Jamie shoved her glasses back up her nose and gives Sirius a look of triumph as if this was irrefutable logic.

Sirius reckoned Jamie was probably right but he didn't know what else she had in mind but knowing Jamie she definitely had something else in mind.

"I want to know why he's been keeping this from us," Jamie finally added.

"Probably because people don't like werewolves," Sirius suggested, sarcasm evident in his voice.

"Yeah but we're his friends!  I don't care that he's a werewolf." Jamie said. "Except that he didn't tell us.  You don't care that he's a werewolf right?"

"Course not," Sirius shrugged.

"Right," Jamie said, failing to hide the look of relief on her face.  Even knowing how close her friends were, the conversation had allowed a hint of doubt to creep in.  "So we need to talk to Pete and then we can confront Remus when he's recovered."

They resolved to meet in the common room in a few minutes so they could go down to breakfast together and fill Peter in on these latest developments.  Jamie flounced out of the room and Sirius collapsed back into his mattress for a few minutes before resolving to follow through with Jamie's latest plans.

* * *

 

Later in the Great Hall Sirius and Jamie sat down on either side of Peter.  Peter looked at both of them wondering at the serious looks on their faces. Before he could ask, however, Jamie was speaking.

"Morning, Peter," she greeted solemnly. "We've got a rather important matter to discuss with you."

"But, as I haven't had my breakfast yet, it can wait," Sirius added with a pointed look at Jamie as he began loading food on his plate.

"Right," Jamie agreed as she began loading up her own plate.

Peter looked at his two friends, his confusion, if possible, even greater than when they first sat down. Before he could give further consideration to his friends' airs of mystery Jamie made an announcement.

"I'm trying out for the Gryffindor quidditch team."

"Duh." Sirius didn't even bother to look up at that statement.

"Shut up," Jamie retorted.

"Important as what you're not telling me?" Peter asked.

"Course not," Jamie scoffed.

The three of them continued to bicker as they finished their breakfast.  Finally they left the Great Hall in search of an empty classroom where they could fill Peter in on Jamie's discovery and make plans.

Peter turned to the other two once they had found an empty classroom.  "What's going on?"

He tried to sound more nonchalant than he felt.  Peter still felt that soon they'd realize he wasn't cool enough to be included in their group.  He had begun to suspect that maybe this was that day.

"Remus is a werewolf," Jamie announced.

"We think Remus is a werewolf," Sirius corrected.

"We're reasonably sure that Remus is a werewolf," Jamie amended.

Peter's gaze shifted between his friends. "So why aren't we talking to Remus about this?" He asked finally.

"Because, it's the full moon," Jamie said like it was obvious, "So he's not exactly available to talk to right now."

"Right," Peter said. "So what are we doing?"

"Well I want to know why he never told us," Jamie answered.

"Probably 'cause he thought we'd hate him," Peter reasoned.

"Thanks, Pete," Sirius said. "That's what I said."

"We're his friends.  Why would we hate him?" Jamie said.

Peter and Sirius rolled their eyes.  Jamie was unwaveringly loyal and she projected and that loyalty led her to certain assumptions, such as forgetting that not everyone could look past something like lycanthropy and see the person.  She could certainly never hate Remus for something that was out of his control.  Peter and Sirius didn't care that Remus was a werewolf and they didn’t take it personally that Remus had kept this secret from them.

Rather than bothering talking it out with Jamie, they helped her make plans for letting Remus know that they knew and that they didn’t care.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Remus was in the library studying and recovering.  He was always exhausted and a little paranoid after a full moon.  More so now that he had friends.  He didn't want to imagine losing his friends because they discovered his secret.

He was distracted by the appearance of the very friends he was trying to keep in the dark about his lycanthropy.

"Hello, Remus," Jamie greeted him formally. "I'm on the quidditch team."

"Ah, good for you," Remus answered, somewhat confused.

"That's not why we're here," Sirius said.

Remus felt a heavy weight sink into his stomach. "Oh. Why are you here then?"

"We like spending time with you.  You've been gone a while," Peter tried.

"How is your aunt, Remus?" Jamie asked.

"Sick," he answered. "Really sick."

"Still?" Sirius asked.

"We know you're a werewolf, Remus," Jamie said.

"Right," Remus said, not looking at any of them. "So this is it then?  You know my secret and now you've come to tell me you can't be friends with me anymore?"

"Don't be stupid, Remus," Jamie said, "You're still our friend.  Is that why you didn't tell us?  You thought we wouldn't like you anymore or something?"

"Well, yeah," Remus said.  

"Told you, Jamie," Sirius said smugly.

"You still want to be friends with me?" Remus looked hopeful.

"Obviously," Peter answered.

"But I'm a werewolf," Remus clarified.

"My family are all Slytherins who all hate me" Sirius said.  

"I'm related to him and his family," Jamie added, jerking her thumb at Sirius.

"I barely passed my last assignment in defense," Peter added.

"Point is, none of us are perfect," Jamie said.

"You almost failed your last defense assignment?" Sirius asked. "Why didn't you ask one of us for help?"

Peter mumbled something about not wanting to bother anybody.  Jamie and Sirius have him a concerned look.

"Anyway that's why we're here," Jamie said.

"Because Peter almost failed his last defense assignment?" Remus looked confused.

"Yes.  No," Jamie said. "Sort of.  I mean we're friends. We're supposed to be here for each other if someone needs help."

"That's not what I want from my friends," Sirius interjected.

"Shut up," Jamie said.

Just then the librarian came and shooed them out.  They had been getting too loud with their conversation.  With Jamie's last retort they could no longer be ignored.  Remus packed up his homework and the fir friends went in search of another setting for their conversation.

They found an empty classroom and Jamie picked up the conversation, "The point is Remus: we don't want you to have to go through this alone."

"That's right," piped up Peter.  

"What are you going to do?" Asked Remus. "It's not like humans can be around a werewolf when they've transformed."

Jamie turned to Sirius her hand in her hair as her mind raced. "It could be possible."

"It's not. I'll either kill you or turn you. I don't want to do that," interjected Remus.

"What's possible?" Asked Sirius, completely ignoring Remus.

"We could become animagi," she said excitedly.

"That's highly complex magic," Peter protested.

"We're highly skilled at magic," Jamie countered.  She was positively thrumming with excitement as she considered what she was suggesting.

"It would take a long time," Sirius mused but he definitely sounded receptive to the idea.  In fact, if Jamie wasn't mistaken, she'd say he was just as excited about the possibility as she was.

"It'd be worth it.  To make sure Remus isn't alone with his transformations," Jamie said.

"It's also illegal," Remus added.

"So we just have to make sure we're not caught," Sirius said, finally giving Remus his full attention.

Jamie began to feel that it would be possible. She didn't care how long it would take.  They would become animagi for Remus. They'd make sure he wouldn't have to go through transformations again.  Not only that, but becoming animagi would open up a whole new world of mischief for the four friends. Her excitement was growing.

"We'll do it. We're becoming animagi," Jamie proclaimed, practically vibrating with energy as she considered it.

"I guess that means we need to go back to the library," said Peter glumly.

"That's right, Pete," Sirius clapped his hand on Peter's shoulder. "We have a lot of work cut out for us."

"You're really going to do this?" Remus asked. "You're going to become animagi? For me?"

"Course we are," Jamie replied easily.  

Jamie had that crooked smile on her face and that glint in her eye that told the others there was no stopping her.  Of course, neither Sirius nor Peter had any intention of stopping her.  Remus, on the other hand still looked skeptical but he knew that he was beaten.  If he was honest with himself he was happy that he had friends who not only didn’t mind that he was a werewolf, but wanted to do whatever they could to make his transformations easier on him.  

The four friends began to make plans. "Of course, Sirius and I shouldn't go to the library together right now.  We’d be kicked out on our entrance.”

"This was your idea," Remus reminded Jamie. "And I'm not the one becoming an animagus."

"We're doing this for you, mate," Sirius stated reasonably.

"I'll go," Peter volunteered reluctantly.  Though quite capable at magic, Peter wasn’t as comfortable in the library as the others.  Still, this was something he could do for Remus.

“You’re the best, Pete,” Jamie said, clapping him on the shoulder.  “Just think, you’ll be like a marauder searching for information to help in our cunning plan.  We should call ourselves that.”

“Call ourselves what?”  Remus asked not quite keeping up with Jamie’s rapid train of thought.

“Marauders,” Jamie replied.  

“Marauders?” Remus asked incredulous.  “Who’s going to call us that?”

“We are,” was the answer, but it wasn’t from Jamie, it was from Sirius.  “I think it’s a brilliant name.  What about you, Pete?”

“Yeah,” Peter nodded enthusiastically.  “It’ll be really cool.”

Remus was beginning to find their enthusiasm infectious, not only for the process of becoming animagi, but also for giving their group a name.  Though he had been reluctant at first, still unsure of his place at Hogwarts, he began to get a feel for the adventure and the excitement of doing something so big.  

“Yeah, ok,” he finally agreed, a smile growing on his face.  

  
With Remus firmly in agreement, the four friends, now calling themselves the marauders, began to plan in earnest just what information they would need to have on hand in order to begin what would surely be a long and difficult process.


	3. Chapter 3

“We’re supposed to do what?  For how long?” Sirius asked indignantly.

“Hold a mandrake leaf in our mouths for a month,” Peter replied steadily.

“Let me check that,” Jamie demanded, stalking over to where Peter was looking at their notes.

She peered over his shoulder reading the notes they had copied down over a year ago when they began the process of secretly becoming animagi. Jamie didn’t remember ever writing anything down about doing something so ridiculous and obvious, but there it was written in her handwriting.  She wasn’t sure how they were going to get away with having to hold a mandrake leaf in their mouths for a whole month.  

“Looks like we’ll be holding a mandrake leaf in our mouths for a month,” Jamie said, resigned.  One thing was for sure, there would be a lot less shouting on her part at quidditch practices.  She couldn’t risk having the leaf fly out and starting over.  

“How are we supposed to make that work?”  Sirius demanded.  “Don’t you think our professors are gonna get suspicious of our month long silence?”

Before Jamie could answer, Remus said, “I guess you’ll just have to come up with something plausible to work as an excuse.”

“Got any suggestions?” Sirius asked, pacing up and down the empty classroom in frustration.  

“Well you can’t claim you’re ill, they’d just send you to the hospital wing,” Remus began.

“Thanks so much for pointing out the obvious,” Sirius had stopped his pacing to glare at Remus.

“Vow of silence?” suggested Jamie, mostly just to redirect Sirius’s frustration away from Remus.

Just as Peter seemed about to agree, Sirius spoke up, “That’s even less likely to work than claiming an illness that we all three mysteriously caught at the same time.”

“Is there anything saying you have to keep your mouth closed the entire time you’ve got the mandrake leaf in your mouth?” Remus asked.

Jamie and Peter both went back to bending over the parchment that Jamie’s notes were scribbled on.  After a few moments, Peter and Jamie both looked back at the other two marauders.

It was Peter who spoke, “No, there isn’t anything in here to suggest that we have to keep our mouths closed the whole time.”

“So I don’t see how this is a big deal.  You just have to be a little more careful, that’s all,” Remus responded.

Sirius looked like he wanted to say something biting, but he really couldn’t argue with Remus’s statement.  When Sirius had first started behaving more irritable than usual, the others had struggled to decide what to do.  Finally it was Jamie who decided to confront him.  It came out that with Regulus’s sorting into Slytherin house, Sirius’s relationship with his family had gotten even more tense.  He was better than before Jamie had forced an explanation from Sirius.  

“So,” Peter said, “How are we going to get the mandrake leaves?”

“Well, Pete,” Jamie replied with a grin, “As it happens I have a brilliant solution to this problem.”

The other three looked genuinely curious.  Finally Remus asked, “And what would that be?”

“Let’s go back up to Gryffindor Tower and I’ll meet you in your dorm,” Jamie replied cryptically.  

The other three gave her curious looks and then shrugged.  They were all curious to see what Jamie could possibly have that would allow them to acquire mandrake leaves secretly that she was so intent on keeping a secret.  The marauders left the empty classroom together and walked up to Gryffindor, unusually solemn for the four of them.  

Once in the tower, Jamie parted ways with the boys and went up to the girls’ dormitories.  She quickly went to her trunk, digging around furtively in the hopes that the other third year girls wouldn’t return before she found what she was looking for.  

Tucking the object under her robes, Jamie ran out of the girls’ dormitories and up to the boys’ dormitories.  In the third year dormitory she found the other marauders waiting patiently for her.  She pulled what looked like silvery fabric out from under her robes.  

The boys were thoroughly nonplussed until Sirius asked, “Wait a minute.  Is that an Invisibility Cloak?”

“Yep,” Jamie answered, nodding eagerly.  

“And you’re just now telling us this?” Sirius asked, and Jamie could hear in his voice a note of betrayal that she hadn’t shared this secret with them.

“Well, yeah,” she answered.  “My dad told me not to go shouting about it so I didn’t.  But now we need it.  Plus it’s not like any of you are going to go shouting about it.”

Remus gestured to look at the silvery material and Jamie handed it over for him to examine.  Remus let the material slip through his fingers and then looked up at Jamie who gestured for him to try it on.  When Remus slung the cloak around his shoulders, he disappeared completely.

Sirius turned to Jamie.  “I suppose that would solve our problem of getting hold of the mandrake leaves.”

Jamie nodded, “I told you I had a solution.”

“This is brilliant,” Remus spoke.  They all turned in the direction of Remus’s voice but he was still under the Cloak so they all stared vaguely in his general direction.  When Remus pulled the cloak off, he asked, “So when do we do it?”

Sirius lifted one eyebrow, a move which he had spent time perfecting, and said, “We?”

Remus looked a little sheepish, “Well, yeah, I thought-” but at the moment they heard footsteps outside the third year boys’ dorm.

Jamie hurried grabbed the Cloak back from Remus and shoved it into her bag.  The door opened just as she finished getting the Cloak out of sight to reveal Liam Evans.

“Hey, Evans,” Jamie greeted him in a would be casual voice.  She ran a hand through her hair, making it messier than usual.  

“Potter,” Evans responded tersely.  He rummaged around in his trunk, and then with whatever he’d come for in hand he left the room with a brief nod to Remus but otherwise not saying anything to the rest of the marauders.

“What’s wrong with Evans?” asked Jamie to the room at large.

“I’d say he doesn’t like you, mate,” Remus replied easily.

Shaking off the encounter, the marauders returned to making plans to get mandrake leaves.  They decided that, when the time came to implement their plan, Jamie and Sirius would be the ones to sneak out of the castle under the Cloak.  Jamie reasoned that it was her Cloak so she would absolutely be going.  Sirius reasoned that since Remus wasn’t transforming he didn’t need to go and Peter was considerably less capable than he was at sneaking around.  

Though Remus and Peter weren’t exactly happy with this plan they couldn’t exactly argue that Jamie and Sirius weren’t the best candidates for getting the leaves.  So, on the night in question Jamie met Sirius in the boys’ dorm and after making sure they were both completely covered, they slipped out of the Tower with a little help from Remus.

 **  
**Once back they handed Peter his leaf and together with an air of great solemnity they put the leaves in their mouths.  The moment was ruined once the flavor of the leaf hit their tongue and they made spectacular faces, that Remus wished he had been able to record in commemoration of the beginning of the month where three of the marauders held mandrake leaves in their mouths.


	4. Chapter 4

“Ok.  This is it,” Jamie exclaimed.  She was bursting with excitement.  Her eyes glittered and her hair seemed messier than ever.  She shoved her glasses back up her nose, and said, “This is where we find out if it actually worked.”

Jamie screwed up her face in concentration, but before she transformed she opened her eyes and said, “Wait.”

The other three groaned.  This wasn’t the first time Jamie had put off attempting the transfiguration, and if they were to guess, they’d say she was worried it wouldn’t work.

“Listen, if you don’t try it soon, I will,” Sirius growled, sounding awfully like the dog he expected to become.

“I will, I will,” Jamie reassured them, “I was just thinking, what if we had nicknames?”

“Maybe we should wait until we know for sure it worked,” Remus suggested.  “And you can get on with it.”

Jamie nodded and then screwed up her face in concentration again.  As she thought about the animal form she was taking, she felt the transformation begin.  If anyone asked her, she would say she didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t what happened.  Maybe she thought it would be painful like Polyjuice potion was supposed to be, but it wasn’t.  The transformation was quick but it seemed to her that she could feel every change as it happened.  

As she took time to evaluate how it felt to no longer be human, she noticed a distinct lightness at her head, and in her indignation she returned to a human form.

Sirius laughed when she exclaimed, “What the hell?”

“What did you honestly think you’d be a stag, Prongs?” Sirius managed to say through his laughter.

It seemed ridiculous now, that she had thought that.  She was a girl and therefore she would be a doe when she transformed, but she had images of grandeur and nobility so often associated with the stag that she had assumed.

“Prongs doesn’t fit.  I’m not a stag,” she objected.

“Oh we’re definitely calling you Prongs,” Remus laughed.  

Before Jamie could retort, Sirius transformed.  Just as expected, he was a great black dog.  He gamboled about them joyfully.  Unable to resist any longer, Jamie again took her animagus form and joined him.  After a few minutes they both resumed human form and looked expectantly at Peter who had not joined them in their transformation.  In a moment Peter was gone and in his place was a rat, who scurried to the nearby Whomping Willow, pressing the knot Remus had informed them would freeze the tree.  Under the frozen tree, Peter resumed his human form.

“His tail looks kind of like a worm don’t you think?” Sirius observed.

“I think you’re right,” Jamie replied, contemplating Peter.  “We’ll call you Wormtail.  And Sirius you can be Padfoot.  And Remus is Moony.”

Remus lifted his eyebrow. “Moony? You’re all named after physical characteristics.  Well, not you, Prongs, since you don’t have antlers.”

“I resent that,” Jamie responded.  “And besides, a werewolf’s transformation at the full moon is absolutely a characteristic.”

“Not a physical one,” Remus argued.

“It’s a good name,” Peter piped up.  

“If you want to draw attention to the fact that I’m gone every full moon,” Remus reminded them.

“No one pays that much attention, mate,” Sirius said.  

“Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.”  Saying their nicknames all together gave them a sense of finality.  A sense of drama and solemnity overtook them all as Jamie voiced their names.  

It was Sirius who broke the moment, “How about a trip to Hogsmeade?”

The other marauders quickly agreed.  Peter transformed first for the Whomping Willow had unfrozen.  Jamie, Remus, and Sirius followed him into the passageway beneath the tree.  The full moon would be the following week, and Jamie and Sirius had reasoned this could be a practice run so Remus didn’t have to undergo any more transformations alone than necessary.

This week they discovered that they had successfully become animagi.  That night they became comfortable transforming into their animal forms.  Most importantly, for the first time Remus felt a small amount of excitement as he contemplated the full moon.

“You know,” Peter mused as they walked back up to the castle, “We should probably make sure we can’t be caught.”

“We have an Invisibility Cloak, Wormtail,” Sirius reminded him.  “And we’re animagi.”

“Sure,” Peter agreed, “But what if someone sees us disappear or transform?”

“He makes a fair point,” Remus conceded.  “It would be pretty easy to get caught if we aren’t careful.”

“What about a map?” Jamie suggested.

Sirius scoffed but Remus looked at her as if she knew exactly what Jamie was suggesting.  Not only did he know exactly what Jamie was suggesting but he thought it was a good idea.

“A map that shows where anyone is at any given time in the castle?” Remus asked to clarify.

Jamie nodded, “Do you think it would work?”

Peter and Sirius watched Remus and Jamie, who had stopped walking.  Finally it was Peter who spoke, “Surely it would be really difficult magic.”

“Wormtail,” Sirius chided him, “We just pulled off becoming animagi.  I think we can handle difficult magic.”

Jamie nodded again, her eyes slightly unfocused behind her glasses as she thought it out.  “There’s no one in the school who knows it better than we do.”  She paused again.  “‘Cept maybe Dumbledore.”

“Let’s give it a go,” Remus agreed.  

The four marauders recommenced their walk back up the castle.  One project had ended and a hopefully less intensive project would begin.

Sirius spoke up as they reached the doors, “A prefect on our side, the ability to become animagi, and a map that’ll show us where anyone is in the castle?  We’ll be unstoppable.”

 **  
**The other three agreed.  As they snuck through the doors and back up the Gryffindor Tower, they prepared to make the most of their remaining time at Hogwarts.


End file.
